Catherine The Great Analysis

History is said to be written by the victors, but Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia did not wait for History to make its decision, nor did she wait for it to write for her; rather, she took matters into her own hands and literally wrote down her own history herself in the form of memoirs. According to the preface of The Memoirs of Catherine the Great, translators Mark Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom comment that Catherine’s memoirs “have been judged both infamous and marginal” and majorly read for “details about her sex life and court gossip” (ix). This is most likely because autobiographical writing have the tendency to be biased towards the writer. While Catherine may have been selective about the portrayal of her life, she leaves room for interpretation. There is more to be said about Catherine by reading in-between the lines rather than her words themselves. This paper aims to discuss Catherine’s intention in writing memoirs, as well as provide a perspective on Catherine

In fact, she was the one who took Catherine to Russia herself in order to arrange the marriage to the future tsar. Johanna was hungry for fame and the prospects that followed; this hunger was centered on her daughter’s marriage and prospects of becoming an empress. In her memoirs, Catherine frequently describes her mother as someone with “ill humor” and someone she “had always obeyed” (17). She also shares that her mother “often angry and especially with [Catherine]” (17). But more importantly, when Johanna was banned from Russia for spying for the king of Prussia, Catherine was able to escape her mother’s controlling and abusive grasp; however, this lead Catherine to be further scrutinized by the Russians. Her mother’s betrayal produced the question of whether or not the princess could be fully